F1 teams bracing for 'curveball' on tyre suppliers

F1 teams are preparing for a 'curveball' on tyre suppliers according to McLaren's managing director Jonathan Neale, as Pirelli are yet to be officially announced as the supplier for 2014.

Though Neale admitted he would expect an eleventh hour deal to be done with Pirelli, he has claimed teams would have plans to put into place should a last minute change of supplier occur. However he did stress that assumption has little foundation.

"If we were to get a late change from somebody else coming into the sport at short notice," Neale told a Vodafone teleconference, "of course we would work around that and work with whoever the FIA chose that to be."

The speculation is should FIA President Jean Todt put the contract for tyre supplier out to tender his preferred choice Michelin would be the most likely taker.

Neale however admitted that with teams already designing cars for 2014 using data given by Pirelli, a last minute switch would put a major spanner in the works.

"But it would be the same for everybody," he added. "So if somebody throws in a curveball at the last minute we'll all have to recover but there will be some winners and losers in that."

Looking at the current tyre situation, Neale praised Pirelli on it's quick response to the tyre exploding events at the British Grand Prix, though admitted there was some concern heading to one of the toughest circuits on the tyres, Spa-Francorchamps.

"I think for this weekend all the teams will be reasonably alert that we are high load at Spa," said Neale.

"Pirelli are being rightly cautious about making sure that the teams operate within certain restrictive windows on tyre pressures and cambers etc and we're supportive of that process," he added.

Pirelli are bringing their hardest tyres to Spa, the hard and medium compounds, though weather forecasts are suggesting the intermediate and wet tyres could be used with a chance of rain for qualifying and further wet weather predicted for Sunday.

DISCLAIMER: This article has been written by a member of the GiveMeSport Writing Academy and does not represent the views of GiveMeSport.com or SportsNewMedia. The views and opinions expressed are solely that of the author credited at the top of this article. GiveMeSport.com and SportsNewMedia do not take any responsibility for the content of its contributors.

Do YOU want to write for GiveMeSport? Get started today by signing-up and submitting an article HERE: http://gms.to/writeforgms

Report author of article

DISCLAIMER

This article has been written by a member of the GiveMeSport Writing Academy and does not represent the views of
GiveMeSport.com or SportsNewMedia. The views and opinions expressed are solely that of the author credited at the top of this article.
GiveMeSport.com and SportsNewMedia do not take any responsibility for the content of its contributors.

Want more content like this?

Like our GiveMeSport Facebook Page and you will get this directly to you.